Occupy Justice States They Are Not A Registered NGO Because ‘Current Regime Would Exploit Them’
Following the circulation of an email claiming that Occupy Justice have collected €50,000 in illegal donations over the past 14 months, the pressure group has released a statement responding to recent allegations.
The email circulating was supposedly sent by an ex-member of Occupy justice, Erika Mizzi, who claims she left the group after being asked to illegally collect donations at social events, vigils, and via online chat. However, OJ have stated that ‘Erika Mizzi’ does not exist. Furthermore, they have stated that they do not have the “stashes of money” that Erika claims they have collected.
In their statement, OJ point out that they are not an NGO, a political party, or a company; they are a pressure group.
They continued by saying that, because of this, they do no have employees or a bank account. However, some individuals do offer to support them financially or in kind, in order to keep vigils and other actions happening.
“We purposely have no official standing because we know that the current regime would exploit our official registration and intimidate and pressure any person who may be involved with #occupyjustice in any way.”
Occupy Justice have stressed that their intentions are simply to fight for good governance and justice of assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
You can read the full statement below.